The basic objectives of the research effort continue to be reduction of unnecessary patient delay prior to hospital admission and during hospital stay, improved bed utilization and allocation, more efficient utilization of hospital facilities and ancillary services, more efficient staffing patterns, improvement in the quality of care, and cost reduction. To achieve these objectives, alternative operating policies dealing with the admissions-surgery-bed allocation-total hospital system will be formulated and developed in collaboration with the hospital administrators. Operational and planning models utilizing computer simulation, including programmed heuristics will be developed for the purpose of evaluating these policies. Model construction and development will include an expanded admissions model, a full range surgery model, and finally a coordinated admissions surgery-bed allocation model. These models will be of sufficient depth and scope to provide the capability for analyzing problems in the admissions-surgery environment of a large urban hospital or medical center. Throughout the research program, special emphasis will be placed on continued collaboration between the investigators and hospital personnel, in order to insure model feasibility and applicability, thereby enhancing implementation potential.